THE BROKEN PLACES

Small-town fame is a blessing at first and then a curse in this modest, carefully composed novel about the 12-year-old descendant of two generations of heroic firemen. Growing up in Casey, Pa., Paul Tucker lives an idyllic life of bike rides, Frisbee golf and Pony football, evading his worrywart mom, Laura, and worshipping his firefighter dad, Sonny. Then one day, Sonny is called to a collapsed house to rescue 16-year-old Ian Finch, a swastika-tattooed rebel who was experimenting with explosives. While Ian's foot is trapped under the wreckage, another wall falls, and Sonny is caught, too. Hours later the two emerge, Ian missing one foot. Besieged by the media, Sonny is soon propelled from local hero to national celebrity. The Tuckers are unsettled by the publicity—which culminates in a realistically ludicrous made-for-TV movie—but also by Sonny's nervous need for fame. What really happened under the collapsed house, and who was the true hero? As his family deteriorates and his dad begins to fall apart, Paul is hastened toward adulthood by the discovery that love sometimes requires compassion and courage. Perabo was widely praised for Who I Was Supposed to Be, her first collection of stories, and her debut novel is confident and well-crafted. She builds her world out of many carefully chosen details; even the most incidental characters are fully formed, fully present. Her protagonist is such a real boy that he gives credibility to the novel's most sensational events simply by experiencing them, and his thoughtful wonder makes the universal truths of growing up seem new. Agent, Elyse Cheney. 5-city author tour.(Aug.)